Stardate: 80730:1455
Title: Into the Fire
Author: Counselor Kami
Time: Concurrently / During “A Gingerbread Army?”
Scene: Andarus V


“What fairytale are we in now?” Demanded Harak, taking cover behind a stone pillar with Niran as the dragon breathed fire through the courtyard.

“I... I don’t know...” Niran replied. He was sitting, blank face, behind a stonewall.

“Niran?” Harak cried, realizing he was having a panic attack.

*Try to calm down Niran, you’ll be okay, its not like Earth* He put his hand to his chest, his breathing became shallow and rapid.

Harak rushed over squatting in front of him as he lost focus.

“Niran? Focus! Come on!” Yelled Harak.


=/\= San Francisco, Earth, 8 years ago =/\=

“What fairytale are we in now?” demanded Harak, taking cover behind a stone pillar with Niran as the dragon breathed fire through the courtyard.

“I... I don’t know...” Niran replied. He was sitting, blank face, behind a stone wall.

“Niran?” Harak cried, realizing he was having a panic attack.

*Not again, please not again* He put his hand to his chest, his breathing became shallow and rapid.

Harak rushed over squatting in front of him as he lost focus.

“Niran? Focus! Come on!” yelled Harak.


=/\= San Francisco, Earth, 6 years ago =/\=

Niran and several other Starfleet personnel were thrown across the yard by a powerful and sudden energy blast. Breen fighters screamed as they flew over head, bombing the city.

“Up, Cadet!” Yelled a Trill lieutenant, helping Niran off the ground from the shoulders.

He shook his head, trying to get the dirt and blood off of his body. Niran saw the bodies of his classmates lifeless on the grass and quickly turned away.

“Keep it together, Cadet!” Yelled the Lieutenant. “We have to get to the shelter, come on!”

[All personnel, we are under attack by the Breen, report to emergency shelters immediately! Security and tactical personnel, report to the armory at once, all other...]

There was a massive explosion that shook the ground, forcing both the Lieutenant and Niran down. They turned and saw the Starfleet Ops building take heavy fire and then collapse in flaming rubble.

[We just lost ops, Ma’am!] said a voice on the com. It was barely audible through combadges.

[Damn it! Scramble our fighters! Where’s the Enterprise?]

The Breen fighters had taken position above the city of San Francisco, bombing the city while coming back for another pass at Starfleet HQ.

The Lieutenant dragged Niran, who was barely conscious, into an emergency bunker where medical staff were tending to the injured. Niran was quickly placed onto a bed and scanned with a tricorder by a medical student, who was so nervous he could barely hold the tricorder.

Niran was able to focus and realized it was his room mate.

“Danny,” Niran said. “Are you okay?”

“Better than you, but you’re alive,” he replied, closing the tricorder. “Get me a hypospray of morphine! NOW! Niran, you're lucky, you only have a few broken ribs and some bruising.”

The building shook and several of the patients uttered small screams. Lights and equipment flickered as the medical teams tried their best to help the injured.

A platoon of infantry entered, phaser rifles in hand along with some heavy military equipment.

“This building is being targeted, we have to move!” Yelled the leading Sergeant, a Vulcan woman. “Quickly!”

The group of thirty or so personnel evacuated the crumbling bunker in the midst of aerial dogfights between Starfleet shuttles and fighters and the Breen attack force. Suddenly, a green torpedo came out of the sky and blasted against the ground, shaking the grounds. Bodies and dirt went flying into the air, echoed by screams of pain and fear.

Niran was face down in the dirt again, the Trill Lieutenant badly burned next to him, lying lifelessly besides other people. He screamed for help, but no one around him was conscious. A figure emerged from the smoke and dust; it was a Breen.


=/\= Now =/\=

Niran stirred, realizing that Harak was shaking him.

“Get it together Niran,” she pleaded. “I know you’re freaking out, but I need you.”

He nodded, standing up and running with Harak across the walkway that was now scorched black, rushing into an open storefront, appearing to be an armory.

Harak quickly grabbed a strange weapon made out of wood and a wire, along with a set of pointed arrows.

“It’s the closest thing we’ve got right now to a phaser,” Harak said, loading an arrow.

Harak emerged from the shop and fired the arrow at the dragon. It roared loudly, flapping its wings hard, sending gusts into the town square. The dragon landed on the ground and started to crawl toward the two counselors.

Out of nowhere, a blue and white dust covered the dragon. It slowed down, roaring, as it began to freeze and become solid. It shattered into millions of tiny shards of frozen flesh and bone.

A tall, pale, woman wearing a lace, skin-tight white dress descended into the streets, holding a large staff. She wore a silver crown and instantly turned to the counselors as she descended.

“Bow before your Queen!” She yelled, knocking the bottom of her staff into the ground. As she knocked, a white light shined from the gem at the top of her staff. At the same time, the two counselors found themselves being forced to bow by an invisible force, appearing to have emerged from the staff.

“You will come with me,” she ordered sternly. Niran noticed her eyes were dark like space, unlike her skin and dress.

The Queen forced the two officers to walk with her to the castle. They continued deeper until they approached large wooden doors, which the Queen forced open, revealing a room full of odd fairytale characters including a gingerbread person, standing besides the King and several Starfleet officers.

Niran smiled at the pure absurdity of this scene. “Ship’s Counselor, reporting for duty, Captain,” he stated, nodding his head at the Captain’s direction.


====================
Ensign Niran Kami
Ship’s Counselor
U.S.S. Horizon
NCC-72400
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